Best Poker App To Play With Friends Without Facebook
I was at a friend’s house recently and the topic of poker came up. During the conversation, he asked me, “can you play poker without chips?” After answering him, the question got me thinking so I did a bit of research and decided to share a few tips on how to play poker without chips.
Texas Hold’em app guide. Find the best Hold’em poker app to play online and download free Texas Hold’em apps to learn poker.
Poker games are built around wagering or betting. Therefore, unless you are strictly playing for fun you will need some form of currency or monetary substitute available to play with. Otherwise, it is virtually impossible to know who is winning or losing. Almost universally, the most common thing used in lieu of real currency is poker chips.
- The most played popular poker apps for Android - ZYNGA POKER, TEXAS HOLDEM, GOVERNOR POKER, HOW TO PLAY POKER, Download Zynga Poker apk file.
- How To Play Online Poker On Your Mobile – Get a step-by-step guide to mobile poker apps and games. Learn all about playing poker on your mobile in 2015.
- These days different kinds of poker applications let you play and enjoy online poker with your friends. Some of these apps are free, while some of these could.
- This is one of the best Texas Hold ‘Em apps, but perhaps what makes this best poker app. How to Be a Professional Poker Player: Learn to Play Poker Like.
However, sometimes an impromptu poker game will happen and no actual poker chips will be available. Fear not. You probably have numerous different options to use as an alternative somewhere in your house or place of business. I know because I scoured my house and office for ideas to fulfill the needs of avid poker players when it comes to playing without chips.
Here are a few obvious and maybe not so obvious quasi-poker chip options:
1. Spare Change
Okay, so this is the obvious one so I saved it for last since you might have forgotten about your kid’s piggy bank or those coins built up in the center console of your car. Speaking of which, I once built a $4,000 bankroll from the spare change lying around. If I can do it, surely you could use those accidental savings to play a quick game with your family or buddies. Rolls of pennies, nickels, dimes, or all three would serve perfectly. Just make sure you set the parameters ahead of time dictating whether the winner actually gets to keep the money.
2. Play Money
Best Poker App To Play With Friends Without Facebook
Perhaps the most common option that one might have lying around the house is in the form of play money collected from various board games. The most obvious that come to mind are Monopoly, Payday, and the Game of Life. It’s likely that one or more of these types of games are stuffed in a closet or cabinet somewhere. If so, the fake cash will serve you well in a game of poker. Maybe the most fun part of using play money comes from pretending like the money is real and you are a group of high rollers!
3. Board Game Pieces
While you’re raiding the game closet if you find that you do not have any board games that contain play money all hope is not lost. Many other games contain game pieces that can substitute fairly well for poker chips. Here are a few examples of games that have either some form of chip or other items that can be used as money. Most everyone has at least one of the following games that contain good poker chip substitutes: Othello, Connect 4, Backgammon, and Checkers. In a pinch, one could even bet with Scrabble tiles.
If you have multiple games with reasonably useful game pieces, feel free to mix and match so that you have enough quantity to play poker with. Scrabble tiles could be $1, red Connect 4 chips could be $5, all the way up to using black Othello pieces as $1,000 chips.
4. Dried Foods
Another option that could upset your significant other is to use common dried foods from the kitchen pantry. Dried beans, corn, and/or legumes work well since they won’t make a huge mess and are typically available in large quantities. You could even boil them up afterward and have some poker chili!
Just be sure not to use any foods that are ready to eat. For most, the temptation is too great and you will probably eat up all the profits. Besides that, who wants to eat an M&M that has been touched by everyone at the poker table. That’s pretty gross.
5. Office Supplies
If you are playing an impromptu game at the office, your options will be limited with no poker chips. Even so, I’m sure there are plenty of items in desk drawers that will do nicely in a poker game. Just make sure the boss isn’t around.
Here are a few things that might be laying around or in a desk drawer:
- Paper clips (Preferably Color)
- Tacks
- Rubber bands
- Posted Notes (Fold Them)
6. Color Popsicle Sticks
This is a great stackable option that most households, especially those with kids, have stuffed in a drawer somewhere. I recommend cutting each stick into thirds to stretch out the number of “chips” that you have. This will add a nice variety to your game.
If you don’t happen to have color popsicles, then it wouldn’t take long to just write different denominations on each stick. The best way to do it is to give a stack to each player who is tasked with writing on a different amount. Otherwise, you can just have the sticks serve as one single denomination.
7. Garage Items
Your typical garage likely has numerous items that can come in multiples and can serve as poker chips. This is especially true if you have a dedicated toolbox that almost always contains a wide assortment of the following:
- Nuts
- Bolts
- Nails
- Washers
- Fasteners
- Electrical Terminals
How Many “Chips” Do You Need to Play Poker?
For most poker games you typically need about 500 poker chips for the game. However, games with 6 players or less can usually get by on 300. This sounds like a lot, but it’s really not since your house or office typically will have a variety of items which can act as a poker chip substitute. Of course, if you have rolls of coins you just evenly distribute them among the players.
What Type of Game Should We Play?
My advice is to only play short stacked cash games or tournaments where the blinds don’t go up. That way you don’t have to round up too many chip replacement items and can just get on with the business of playing poker. After all, your significant other or boss might not appreciate you digging around like a groundhog and making a huge mess!
Assigning Denominations
Without real poker chips available, the best thing you can do is to keep things simple and only use three different poker chip amounts. I would recommend playing 25/50 blinds and giving the following “chips” or denominations that go in a player’s stack:
What Is The Best Poker App To Play With Friends
- $25- 8 Chips
- $100- 8 Chips
- $500- 2 Chip
This setup will give each player $2,000 or 40 big blinds to start with. This allows for an exciting action-packed game. If you need some advice on playing short stacked, I wrote a brief guide with charts that anyone can obtain for free by signing up for my newsletter. Feel free to use my raising ranges or whatever you like so that you can dominate your friends!
What If Someone Runs out of Chips?
If someone busts out, my advice is to let them “rebuy” for a half stack of 20 big blinds or $1,000. That way no one is ever out of the game and some will be able to play deep-stacked as the game progresses.
Alternative Methods of Playing
If everyone in your poker group has access to a computer or even a smartphone/tablet, another option is to play for play money against each other “LAN party” style. There are numerous poker sites out there that offer play money games where you are able to create your own “home game” table to battle against your friends. I recommend Pokerstars since they have the smoothest software and have a way to set up private home games.
Don’t Forget to Use Good Playing Cards
Good playing cards are relatively inexpensive. So, if you can’t afford good poker chips but want to still have a classy game, pick up a quality deck of cards!
Attributions LAN party image by Sanza29 [CC BY-SA 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0)], from Wikimedia Commons
Have you ever wanted to organize a private online poker tournament with your friends as the only participants? If the answer is yes, then we have some exciting news. Gamblers that are looking to set up an online poker tournament can easily do it from the comfort of their home by signing up on a platform that allows creating private rooms.
Many casino operators let gamblers create rooms and invite people they know. From there they can adjust the rules and decide if they want to play for fun or real money. Before you provide any financial or personal information, we recommend you choose a casinobonusca.com verified gambling site, because you wouldn’t like to sign up as a member on a shady casino that could bring you concerns regarding your online privacy.
We made a little research and ended up finding the best private poker platforms, PokerStars, 888poker, and BluffAve. We chose them because they are free and easy to get started with. Additionally, they are also among the leading online poker sites, which ensures that you and your friends will be playing in a safe environment and without worrying about security issues at all.
As a side note, it is worth mentioning that for this guide we tested many other apps, such as Poker Heat, Pokerrrr 2, Blockchain.poker, and more. While some of them had great interfaces and were easy to set up, they were forcing us to complete some in-app purchases in order to proceed with our game, which was supposed to be entirely free.
Get started with Poker Stars Online Home Games
Below, you will find an in-depth guide on how to quickly set up a private poker game online. The easiest method is through Pokerstar’s Online Home Games. This feature allows the members of the platform to choose between tournaments and cash games. To get started with your first private poker game, you just have to:
- Sign up on PokerStars;
- Download and install the PokerStars client;
- Navigate to the “Home Games” section on the bottom right menu;
- Create a room and configure it based on your preferences.
Once you’re done with the setup, tap the “Manage Games” tab and decide what type of poker game you would like to play, the format, the number of players, and the currency. The available poker games on this website are:
- Texas Hold’Em;
- Omaha (play money only);
- Stud;
- Razz;
- 5-Card Draw;
- 2-7 Single Draw;
- 2-7 Triple Draw;
- Horse;
- NLHE / PLO;
- 8 Game;
- Badugi.
Read our article on the most popular poker games to learn more about the various ways you can play it and increase your winning chances.
How to configure a private room
The available stakes vary depending on whether you want to play with real or free money. For example, if you want to go for a real money private game of Stud, the stakes will range from C$0.01 up to C$1.
The free play equivalents are within a completely different range, moving from 100 all the way up to 1.000.000 coins.
PokerStars Home Games allows you to configure your room to your liking by tweaking the number of players per table, the buy-in, the format, the game speed, breaks, payout, and so on. Once you’ve decided on your tournament configuration, click on Create and you’re good to go.
To invite your friends, you need to add them as members of your poker club. To do so, you just have to access the “Manage Club” section and select “How to Invite New Members”. You will receive a message containing the Club ID Number and the invitation code. Now send this information to your friends and they will be able to use it to join your club and see all the private poker rooms you created.
Now that you have a better understanding of how to get started with PokerStar’s private rooms, you should know that this platform is ideal for beginners. It has an intuitive user interface, a large selection of cash games and tournaments and it is available on both desktop and mobile devices. On top of that, you have the best banking methods available for gambling, like Skrill, FirePay, Neteller, VISA, or MasterCard.
888poker
This is an alternative platform on which you can quickly set up your private poker games for free.
To get started, you have to download the 888poker client, register a new account, and access the “Play with Friends” feature under the Extra Games tab. You can either host your own games or join a private room by clicking “Join the Game” after you’ve received the invitation.
An advantage of 888poker is that you don’t have to create a poker club, you just have to follow the on-screen instructions, select your stakes, starting times, and format.
Once you’re done, click “Create” and you will create the private cash game available. Similarly to the PokerStars process, you will receive a text that you need to share with the people that you want to play with.
Bluff Avenue
While PokerStars and 888poker are the most popular choices when it comes to private casino games, we have found a faster way to organize a poker night with your friends. Bluff Avenue is one of the favorite platforms in the online poker community because signing up doesn’t require any sensitive personal information (only name and e-mail) and once you’ve created your account, you can create a room right away and start having fun!
While this website is still in the beta and from time to time the server goes down for maintenance, Bluff Ave is one of the better platforms for having a fun poker game from the comfort of your home. All you have to do is click the “Create” button, choose the game rules and you are all set. Invite other members of the website and the tournament can begin!
Now that you have a brief overview of the most reliable sites where you can organize private poker rooms, it is up to you to choose the best one from the list. Of course, the results might vary based on your preferences, but by trying out these platforms you will for sure find the perfect place for a nice casino night with your buddies.
Relevant news
3 Tips on How To Increase Your Chances of Winning in Poker
Searching for useful tips that’ll help you out of the losing streak and start winning…
read more +How to Play Online Poker in the USA
Many events of 2020 made for jaw-dropping headlines, but one news that flew under the…
read more +
A Short Guide on What is 4 Betting Poker
Are you interested in playing Poker? Or are you a beginner wanting to know how…
read more +Best Poker App To Play With Friends Without Facebook Login
How to Win At Poker As A Beginner in 2021: The Ultimate Guide
Finding practical poker tips for beginners is not easy. When you search “how to win…
read more +How to Play Real Money Poker Without a Deposit
Want to play poker with real money but with no deposit? Don’t want to risk…
read more +How to Improve and Become Better at Texas Hold’em
Due to Covid-19 and lockdown globally, online casinos really have come into their own in…